Red Raider Recap: No. 22 Tech 77, No. 18 Baylor 53

Friday, December 29

United Supermarkets Arena

7:00 PM

Texas Tech Athletics

12-1 (1-0B12)

No. 18 Baylor

10-3 (0-1B12)

No. 18 Baylor

Texas Tech

Red Raider Recap: No. 22 Tech 77, No. 18 Baylor 53

December 30, 2017 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score Highlights Coach Beard Press Conference Keenan Evans & Zhaire Smith Press Conference Texas Tech TV on Fox Recap Texas Tech Quotes Baylor Quotes

The Red Raiders posted their largest margin of victory in Big 12 play since the 2010-11 season.

LUBBOCK, Texas – The No. 22 Texas Tech men's basketball team dialed up its formula for success with four players in double figures, controlled the glass with a 39-21 rebounding advantage and held No. 18 Baylor to under 40 percent shooting en route to a dominating 77-53 win on Big 12 opening night Friday at the United Supermarkets Arena.

The Red Raiders (12-1, 1-0 Big 12) led from start-to-finish and tucked away their largest margin of victory in Big 12 action going back to an 84-58 triumph over Oklahoma on March 2, 2011. Texas Tech improved to 2-2 in ranked vs. ranked games at home.

"When you get into conference play, it's a different type of intensity," Texas Tech head coach Chris Beard said. "I think the Big 12 is the best league in college basketball. It has the best players, great coaches and we play true round robin. There are no weak teams in the league. It felt different today, even our younger guys said it felt different in practice and in the game. This is just one game in an 18-round fight. We are pleased to win tonight because we know how hard it is to win games in this league. We are pleased to protect our home court in front of a great crowd. Hopefully, they will come back and give us another chance. We are pleased to win this game because we have a lot of respect for Baylor. Now, we have to validate this. No championship was ever won during the first game. Now, we have a chance to play a meaningful game against Kansas."

Keenan Evans poured in 18 points on 6-of-10 from the floor and knocked down a quartet of treys. The senior guard also handed out two assists and has reached double figures in 12 of 13 games on the season.

Niem Stevenson filled the box score with 11 points, a season's best five assists, four rebounds and two steals. He has collected 10-plus points in six of his last eight outings.

Texas Tech's freshmen class was ready for the Big 12 stage as Zhaire Smith, Jarrett Culver and Davide Moretti turned in 32 of the team's 42 bench points. Smith compiled 15 points, four rebounds and two blocks. He extended his run to eight consecutive games in double figures.

Culver tucked away 13 points on a 5-of-7 shooting clip and grabbed four rebounds whereas Moretti added four points. Tommy Hamilton IV also was solid off the bench with eight games and a game-high seven rebounds.

Justin Gray tacked on four points, three rebounds and two assists. Norense Odiase made an impact with six rebounds, four assists and a steal. Brandone Francis also secured five rebounds.
As a team, Texas Tech knocked down 26-of-52 from the field which included a 9-of-22 performance from beyond the three-point line. The Red Raiders hit on 16-of-21 at the foul line and scored 42 of the game's 46 points off the bench.

Baylor was held to a 19-for-51 shooting effort and misfired on 9 of its 12 three-point attempts. The Bears hit on 12-for-16 on free throws.

Three Baylor players reached double figures headed by Mark Vital's 12 points. Tristian Clark and King McClure came away with 10 points each. Manu Lecomte was limited to eight points on 11 shot attempts and committed three turnovers.

Evans got the Red Raiders rolling with a trey on the left wing late shot clock off a nice feed from Stevenson. Texas Tech stretched it to double figures as Culver found Hamilton IV for another three-ball on the right wing to make it 20-9 at the 8:29 mark of the opening half.

The Red Raiders pushed it to a 20-point edge after nine consecutive points when Francis used the screen and got an easy layup to extend the margin to 29-9 with 4:42 to go.

Texas Tech took a 40-19 lead into the locker room after Zhaire Smith found Stevenson for a rainbow triple.

The Red Raiders snatched their largest lead at 60-31 with 10:53 remaining when Stevenson captured a steal and went coast-to-coast for a finger-roll layup.

"I thought from where I was sitting, our ball pressure was good," Beard said. "I don't know what the Baylor players said, but I think we applied great pressure tonight. We did not make it easy for them to make passes. I thought they had a freaky stat with only having one assist during the entire game. Baylor missed a lot of open shots, but I think you have to give our team and our player's credit for making it a low assist game for Baylor by pressuring passes. We executed the game plan really well tonight."

UP NEXT
Texas Tech travels to 13-time defending Big 12 regular season champion and this season's Big 12 preseason favorite in No. 11 Kansas on Tuesday. Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. CT from Allen Fieldhouse, and the game will be televised by ESPN as part of the Super Tuesday.

Visit www.TexasTech.com for the latest news and information on the men's basketball program. Fans also can follow the program on its social media outlets by liking TexasTechMBB on Facebook along with following @TexasTechMBB on Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.